'All the world's a stage': Structure, Agency and accountability in international aid

Hoffstaedter, Gerhard and Roche, Chris (2011) 'All the world's a stage': Structure, Agency and accountability in international aid. Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, 16 4: 529-543.


Author Hoffstaedter, Gerhard
Roche, Chris
Title 'All the world's a stage': Structure, Agency and accountability in international aid
Language of Title eng
Journal name Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy  (ERA 2012 Listed)    (ERA 2010 Rank A)   Check publisher's open access policy
Language of Journal Name eng
Publication date 2011-11
Sub-type Article
DOI 10.1080/13547860.2011.610886
Volume number 16
Issue number 4
ISSN 1354-7860; 1469-9648
Start page 529
End page 543
Total pages 15
Place of publication Abingdon, United Kingdom
Publisher Routledge
Collection year 2012
Language eng
Abstract This paper explores recent critiques of aid and responses to them, with a particular focus on attempts to address accountability concerns. It describes, with particular reference to Africa and Melanesia, some of the assumptions that underpin these responses. Using the allegory of theatre, we suggest that much of the formal process of interaction between aid agencies and local actors can be seen as a ‘performance’, and what goes on behind the scenes is often, and sometimes deliberately, ignored.We review why this ‘theatre’ is constructed and how it is maintained, as well as why attempts to dismantle it, or at least change the way it functions, have not met with much success. As a result, we propose alternative ways of addressing issues of accountability, as it relates to International Aid and Cooperation, based on some rather different assumptions about states, civil society, citizens and change than those upon which many of the current attempts to address accountability are based.
Keyword International aid
Accountability
State
Development
Theatre state
Performance
Q-Index Code C1
Q-Index Status Provisional Code
Institutional Status Non-UQ

Document type: Journal Article
Sub-type: Article
Collections: Non HERDC
School of Social Science Publications
 
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Created: Tue, 13 Mar 2012, 14:51:42 EST by Debbie Lim on behalf of School of Social Science